Investigators in numerous disciplines at the University of California San Franciso (UCSF) have made significant individual and collaborative contributions to AIDS research. Additional centralized resources are required to support the rapidly expanding AIDS research effort and to encourage collaborations. To this end, a UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is proposed. The CFAR will support a central operations office which will provide administrative, communication and information services, and editorial assistance. The CFAR will provide funds for six shared resource facilities: 1) Data management and biostatistical support; 2) Centralized AIDS specimen processing and storage; 3) Administrative support for the epidemiologic consortium; 4) A clinical pharmacology support laboratory; 5) A monoclonal antibody development and production laboratory; and 6) A polymerase chain reaction facility. The CFAR research base includes investigators in all areas of HIV research, including basic scientific studies of the cellular and molecular biology of HIV and its associated immune response, clinical trials of HIV therapies, and population based studies of HIV epidemiology and prevention and public and health policy implications of the HIV epidemic. The specific aims of the CFAR are: to provide leadership, governance, and fiscal responsibility for components; to promote communication, foster collaboration and investigator interaction; to attract and stimulate new research on AIDS; to ensure scientific rigor by assisting with initial study design, data management and analysis; and by providing technical grant preparation to CFAR investigators (especially new or junior investigators); to convey the results of the CFAR projects to scientists, clinicians and the public. The UCSF CFAR will be critical in coordinating AIDS research and in encouraging meaningful and productive collaborations in the large and productive AIDS research base at UCSF and affiliated hospitals.